With rapid development of electronic and information industries, computers and the peripheral devices thereof become essential parts in our daily lives. For example, mice are important peripheral devices of computers because they can establish contact between the personal computers and the users. For helping the user well operate the computer, many novel mice with expanded functions are developed in views of humanization and user-friendliness.
Generally, commercially available wheel mice are usually classified into two major types. By rotating a scroll wheel of the first type wheel mouse, the third-axial rotating function is activated to permit for a single axial (e.g. either horizontal or vertical) scrolling operation of the computer screen. For most wheel mice, the single axial scrolling operation is set to be a vertical scrolling operation of the computer screen. The second type wheel mouse is also referred as a tilt wheel mouse. In addition to the third-axial rotating function by rotating a scroll wheel, the scroll wheel of the tilt wheel mouse may be tilted toward the left side or the right side to control a four axial scrolling operation of the computer screen. That is, the tilt wheel mouse may control both horizontal scroll movement and vertical scroll movement of the images shown on the computer screen.
Hereinafter, the configurations of a conventional third-axial wheel mouse will be illustrated with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the internal portion of a conventional third-axial wheel mouse. As shown in FIG. 1, the wheel mouse 1 principally comprises a base 10, a supporting element 11, a left-button switch 12, a right-button switch 13, a wheel switch 14, a scroll wheel 15, a wheel shaft 16 and an encoder 17. The supporting element 11 is disposed on the base 10. The wheel shaft 16 is penetrated through the scroll wheel 15 and supported on the supporting element 11. By rotating the scroll wheel 15 in the rotating direction A, the wheel shaft 16 is rotated with respect to the supporting element 11. Corresponding to the locations of a left click button (not shown), a right click button (not shown) and a first end of the wheel shaft 16, the left-button switch 12, the right-button switch 13 and the wheel switch 14 are respectively disposed on the base 10. The left click button and the right click button are mounted on an upper cover (not shown) of the wheel mouse 1. The upper cover further has an opening, and the scroll wheel 15 is partially protruded outside the opening such that the scroll wheel 15 can be manipulated by a user. In addition, a second end of the wheel shaft 16 is inserted into an encoder 17. Upon rotation of the scroll wheel 15, the encoding disc inside the encoder 17 is rotated to generate a wheel rotation signal. In response to the wheel rotation signal, the image shown on the computer screen is correspondingly scrolled.
Hereinafter, the configurations of a conventional tilt wheel mouse will be illustrated with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the internal portion of a conventional tilt wheel mouse. The tilt wheel mouse 2 comprises a base 20, a first supporting element 21, a second supporting element 22, a left-button switch 23, a right-button switch 24, a wheel switch 25, a left-side tilt switch 26, a right-side tilt switch (not shown), a scroll wheel 27, a wheel shaft 271, an encoder 28 and a wheel swing member 29. The first supporting element 21 and the second supporting element 22 are disposed on the base 20 for supporting the wheel swing member 29. The wheel shaft 271 is supported on the wheel swing member 29 such that the scroll wheel 27 is partially accommodated within the wheel swing member 29. The first supporting element 21 and the second supporting element 22 are respectively arranged at the front end and the rear end of the scroll wheel 27. As a result, the scroll wheel 27 may be tilted toward the left or right side. The left-button switch 23, the right-button switch 24, the wheel switch 25, the left-side tilt switch 26 and the right-side tilt switch (not shown) are disposed on the base 20. In response to the depressing actions of the left-button switch 23, the right-button switch 24 and the wheel switch 25 and the left-side or right-side swinging action of the scroll wheel 27, the left-button switch 23, the right-button switch 24, the wheel switch 25, the left-side tilt switch 26 and the right-side tilt switch are respectively triggered to generate corresponding switching signals.
A first end of the wheel swing member 29 is supported on the first supporting element 21. A second end of the wheel swing member 29 is formed as the triggering shaft 292, which is disposed above the wheel switch 25. In a case that the scroll wheel 27 is pressed down, the triggering shaft 292 of the wheel swing member 29 is moved downwardly to trigger the wheel switch 25, thereby generating a switching signal. Furthermore, a receptacle 291 is formed in the wheel swing member 29 for accommodating the encoder 28.
The main differences between the tilt wheel mouse of FIG. 2 and the third-axial wheel mouse of FIG. 1 include the orientations of the supporting elements and the presence or absence of the wheel swing member. As previously described, the supporting element 11 of the third-axial wheel mouse 1 is perpendicular to the rotating direction A of the scroll wheel 15 such that the scroll wheel 15 is rotatable by the user. Whereas, in addition to third-axial rotation, the scroll wheel 27 of the tilt wheel mouse 2 can be tilted toward the left or right side. For tilting the scroll wheel 27 toward the left or right side, the wheel swing member 29 of the tilt wheel mouse 2 is necessary, and the first supporting element 21 and the second supporting element 22 for supporting the wheel swing member 29 are arranged in parallel with the rotation direction of the scroll wheel 27.
In some instance, some users prefer using the tilt wheel mouse 2 because the tilt wheel mouse has more functions. On the other hand, most users still get use to operating the third-axial wheel mouse 1 but fail to skillfully operate the tilt wheel mouse 2. In a case that many users share a public computer, the use of the third-axial wheel mouse 1 or the tilt wheel mouse 2 alone fails to comply with all users' requirements.
Therefore, there is a need of providing a wheel mouse operable in two wheel operating modes so as to obviate the drawbacks encountered from the prior art.